“I’m pro-life and I have been pro-life,” Trump says. “It’s an issue and a strong issue.”

Trump goes on to explain that he would only support abortion in cases where the mother’s life is threatened and in cases of rape or incest.

In 2011, Trump has recently said numerous times that he is pro-life on abortion and that he changed his views from supporting abortion to pro-life based on his relationships with close personal friends who had children. Their pregnancy experiences, Trump maintains, allowed him to mature on the abortion issue to the point of now opposing abortion.

In an April interview with the Des Moines Register newspaper, Trump expanded on those comments.

“If you look at it, I said, ‘It really, really troubles me, and it really, really bothers me, the whole concept of abortion.’ This was years ago, and even then it really bothered me, but I went on the other side of the line,” Trump said. “But in thinking about it over the years, I’ve had instances, and one instance in particular, a friend had a child who they were going to abort, and now they have it, and the child is incredible. And the man, he changed his views also because of that.”

Trump said he believes abortion should only be legal in the very rare cases when a woman is pregnant by rape or incest or when the life of the mother is jeopardized by the pregnancy.

“Ronald Reagan had the same basic stances I had, and I absolutely believe in the three instances” of exception, he said. “I hope that I can convince Iowans that I will be the best to save our country, and the fact is, I am pro-life.”